Corporate Innovation Strategies. Nacer Gasmi

      Introduction

      Human behavior has always been evaluated, both in terms of its effectiveness and acceptability. Companies are not immune to this type of behavior (Pasquero 2007). The effective component of corporate behavior, which is associated with financial performance, has always been at the heart of corporate discourse. This performance has led companies to only focus on innovation strategies that are likely to further enhance their competitiveness and therefore their profitability. Yet, increasingly, the acceptable dimension of their activities for external and internal stakeholders is also becoming a decisive strategic issue for companies. In recent years, there has been an expectation from consumers that a company’s brands should not only offer them functional advantages, but that companies should also invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, that is, community initiatives. Since World War II, through their activities to create value (profit), multinationals have generated significant growth that has made it possible to significantly reduce the rate of global poverty and to create positive externalities, such as new jobs, new services and state budgetary contributions through various taxes (Kaplan et al. 2018).

      Unfortunately, this growth has not benefited all populations. In developed economies, the most recent gains have benefitted a small proportion of the population, while many members of the working, rural and urban classes have suffered as a result of socio-economic decline. In addition, these enterprises often induce negative social and/or environmental externalities, such as lay-offs, psychosocial risks, occupational accidents and pollution due to climate deregulation. The trajectory of production models is always shaped by the economic, social and political climate of a given period. Until the 1980s, responses to problems of social responsibility were part of a reactive approach to gradually adapt to environmental and social regulations (Berry and Rondinelli 1998).

      While the idea of CSR is sometimes presented as a novelty (d’Humières and Chauveau 2001), concerns about the consequences of economic activities have always been prevalent. The idea of CSR, which involves discourse and practice between businesses and society, dates back at least to the beginning of the 20th Century in North America (Acquier and Gond 2007). In the industrial era, paternalism was an early modern form of CSR. Today, social practices must be sustainable because, as Lars Rebien Sorensen, CEO of the Novo Nordisk Group, pointed out, “corporate social responsibility is nothing more than maximizing the value of the company over time, because in the long run, social and environmental problems become financial problems” (Ignatius 2015). The justification for CSR is associated with the representation of the nature and role of the enterprise and its raison d’être.

The more a company is concerned about the impact its activities may have on the rest of society, the more it is considered a socially responsible company (Pasquero 2007). CSR thus becomes an exemplary positive theoretical approach, as it challenges the contractual-legal vision of the company. This contractual vision of CSR, which advocates a more partnership-based approach to corporate governance, is part of the process of creating shared value (CSV). The correlation between societal progress and commercial success is becoming increasingly apparent. To this end, “if all companies could stimulate societal progress in all regions of the world, the result would be a decrease in poverty, pollution, disease, and an increase in corporate profits” (Kramer and Pfitzer 2017). According to these authors, there are two reasons why CSR practice has become imperative for companies. The first concerns the questioning of the legitimacy of businesses, which have come to be perceived as thriving at the expense of the community as a whole.